The whale movie marks the actress' third-straight, subpar box-office performance. On the upside, its performance did improve on the openings of Going the Distance and Everybody's Fine.

Overall, multiplexes continued to recover from last year's downturn. Ticket sales were up a whopping 33 percent for the same Super Bowl weekend last year, Exhibitor Relations estimated.

Elsewhere, in their second, post-coupon-sale weekends, Katherine Heigl's One for the Money and Sam Worthington's Man on a Ledge held up OK, even as they dropped three spots and four spots, respectively, in the rankings. (And, by the by, bargain shoppers, those coupons are good for as long as the movies are in theaters.)

Oscar movies continued to be non-factors, although George Clooney's The Descendants did hit the $65 million mark domestically.

After a brief, and, as it turned out, fruitless Oscar-qualifying run, Madonna's W.E. was back in theaters—and just in time for its director's Super Bowl halftime show. The timing and/or the movie worked as the biopic-hybrid grossed more money per theater ($11,250 off each of its four screens) than just about any other movie in rerelease.

Here's the rundown of the weekend's top movies, as compiled from the studios' Friday-Sunday domestic estimates and Exhibitor Relations stats: